I do not own Bleach.

Here I am with Chapter 11! Not much to say before hand. I will be out of town this weekend so I may or may not get the next chapter up before I go. Anyway, special thanks time! kyuumihaira for reviewing, EzraTheBlue for reviewing, and 13emstr for the fave!

Thanks for reading!

Yumichika finally found himself alone after spending hours with Ikkaku. He was glad that his lover wanted to spend time with him for their night shift squad duty, but the fifth seat found himself exhausted and nauseated for most of the day and he just wanted to talk to Rangiku about his possible…pretty much definite pregnancy. Yumichika managed to lose Ikkaku about an hour before their squad duty was set to begin when Yachiru ran through and stole the third seats shoes. The bald man had run after her to retrieve his shoes and that was the last Yumichika had seen of either of them.

The raven haired man lets out a deep sigh as he knocks on Rangiku's door. Maybe she would have some idea of how to help him or at least listen to him complain for a little bit. After two knocks she comes to the door, "Hey, Yumichika. I wasn't expecting you. Don't you have squad duty tonight?"

He nods and tries to keep the nervous tears from leaking down his face, "Yes, but I still have an hour before I report to duty." He swallows down his anxiousness and looks at her again, "Can I talk to you about something?"

"Sure, but maybe you could come back when you have more time." She frowns at her friend's pale complexion, "You seem like you need more than an hour."

Yumichika runs a trembling hand through his hair, "I just need to talk to you, Rangiku, please."

"Okay, but…"

Yumichika doesn't give her a chance to finish her sentence as he pushes passed her into the room behind the doorway, "No buts, Rangiku…this is serious."

She closes the door and turns to face him, "I understand that, but maybe…"

He shakes his head cutting her off again, "Just listen! I'm in big trouble here."

"Yumichika, I really think…"

The tears finally spill from his violet eyes as he blurts out his reason for coming by, "I'm pretty sure I'm pregnant. I'm like 99.9 percent sure."

A masculine voice can be heard behind the fifth seat and a tinge of shock can be heard, "What? You're pregnant!"

Yumichika turns around to face the ninth lieutenant with wide eyes, "Shuhei! What the hell are you doing here?!" He then turns back to look at Rangiku with betrayal evident on his face, "Why didn't you tell me he was here?! You know I'm too distraught to sense someone else right now!"

Rangiku runs up and hugs Yumichika to her as she sees the flood of tears stain his face, "Shh, shh…I was trying to tell you, but you just kept interrupting me, sweetie. Shuhei came by to bring back some paperwork that I forgot to sign and he was in the bathroom."

Shuhei watches the two of them hug for a moment before he begins asking questions, "Wait just a minute! Yumichika is pregnant! What the hell?! Does Ikkaku know?!"

Yumichika breaks free of Rangiku's embrace and rounds on Shuhei, "You better forget everything you just heard if you know what's good for you!"

The ninth lieutenant puts his hands up in front of him in a gesture of surrender, "Hey, Ayasegawa, calm down…I'm not trying to spread anything around." He backs up a few steps as he puts his hands back down by his side, "I just didn't know you and Ikkaku were trying. That's all."

Yumichika frowns as he plops down into the nearest chair, "Ikkaku doesn't know."

A puzzled expression appears on Shuhei's face as he ponders Yumichika's words, "What do you mean he doesn't know? There's a whole procedure you gotta go through and…"

"I skipped all that, okay!" The fifth seat lets out a worried sigh, "He doesn't know anything about it. I took the lozenge and we had sex and he doesn't know I did what I did."

Shuhei continues to look more and more confused with each word out of Yumuchika's mouth, "But, how did you get the lozenge if you didn't do through all the signatures and approval?"

An expression of realization forms on Rangiku's face as she listens to Shuhei's question, "Hey, yeah…where did you get that lozenge? I know Captain Kurotsuchi will do anything for a test subject, but after what happened with Captain Ukitake I would have thought he would have known better than to…"

"None of that matters!" Yumichika stands up and begins pacing the room after cutting off the two lieutenant's questions, "I could be pregnant and Ikkaku has no clue and I have no idea what in the hell I'm going to say to him!" He then turns to look at Shuhei with a deadly serious expression on his face, "You had better not tell anyone anything you've heard here today…not even Izuru!"

A pink blush spreads across the ninth lieutenant's cheeks at the mention of Izuru, "Pshh, why would I tell Izuru anyway? I mean it's not like anything is going on…we're just friends."

Yumichika and Rangiku each give Shuhei a disbelieving look before the fifth seat responds, "Please, save your denial for someone else, Shuhei. I haven't got time to argue with you about this right now."

Rangiku nods and lets a quick smirk of amusement flicker across her face, "Have you and Izuru even had sex yet?"

Shuhei's mouth drops open in offence, but he only offers a weak reply, "I…we…I don't know why you would ask that?"

Yumichika stops pacing and stomps his feet on the floor a few times for emphasis, "We can discuss Shuhei and Izuru's sexual frustration at another time!"

Shuhei's face becomes impossibly redder, but Rangiku grips Yumichika by the shoulders and tries to reign the conversation back in, "Listen to me, sweetie, you have to come clean with him. You can't hide what's going on any more. If you are pregnant then you're going to start having more obvious symptoms and your appearance will begin changing before you know it. In fact, the sooner you come clean to him about everything the better."

The fifth seat begins hyperventilating as he tries to speak, "But, but…what if he leaves me or doesn't want the baby or…"

The tenth lieutenant begins shaking him roughly as Shuhei looks on in stunned silence, "None of that matters right now. What's important is that you come clean and make an appointment with the fourth. You need prenatal care as soon as possible. Regardless of what Ikkaku wants you'll want to have a healthy baby."

When she notices his depressed expression is still in place, she brings him into her embrace again and tightly squeezes him to her, "He loves you and he's going to be upset, but can you really blame him?" She feels the petite shinigami's head shake against her shoulder and she continues, "He may leave for a little while and he's probably going to yell and say some things he doesn't mean, but I really think he'll come back and at least try to understand why you did what you did eventually. I really do believe that."

More tears leak from Yumichika's eyes as Rangiku continues to hug him, "I…I hope you're right." He sniffles a few times before leaving her embrace. He then wipes his eyes on his sleeve and looks at the clock hanging on the wall, "C-can I stay here if he…"

Rangiku nods not needing her friend to finish his question, "You know you can."

Yumichika steels his resolve and wipes his eyes a few more times before standing up straight, "I have to go or I'll be late for squad duty. Thank you for the talk, Rangiku." He turns to look at Shuhei with a glare, "I'm serious, Hisagi, if you breathe one word of this it's your ass!"

Before Shuhei can respond, Yumichika is out the door and headed to meet up with Ikkaku for their shared night shift squad duty. He knew he needed to come clean, but he just didn't know when he would work up the courage to tell his lover how deceitful he'd been.

Yumichika acted as normal as he possibly could during his shared squad duty with Ikkaku. He was dead tired and only wanted to go home and sleep for eight hundred years without being disturbed. He knew Ikkaku noticed his lethargy, but the bald man doesn't mention it and tries to keep his opinions to himself. The fifth seat knew the best time to reveal his pregnancy suspicions would be the next day when they were both off duty, but when the next day arrived he found that he just didn't have the courage to admit it to his lover. Ikkaku did let him sleep most of the day without question which Yumichika greatly appreciated and the third seat only asked if he was okay when he rushed from the futon more than once to throw up. Yumichika knew Ikkaku wasn't an idiot and would eventually question the frequent vomiting, but for now he wasn't confronted.

7 Weeks

A week later, Yumichika still hadn't confessed to Ikkaku that he was most definitely pregnant and as he jumped from the futon to rid his stomach of his last meal the third seat makes his way into the bathroom with a concerned expression on his face. Ikkaku waits for his lover to flush the toilet and straighten up before speaking to him, "Somethin's the matter with ya and I don't usually say this, but I think…I think ya need to go to the fourth and get checked out. It ain't right fer someone to throw up every day, Yumi."

Yumichika wipes his mouth on a towel and shakes his head, "I don't need to get checked out, Ikkaku, I'm fine."

"Yer not fine!" Ikkaku makes his way farther into the bathroom and grabs the smaller man's wrist in his large hand as if to make sure Yumichika was actually paying attention, "Ya sleep all the damn time and ya barely eat anything, but ya throw up all the time." He shoots his lover another worried look, "Ya ain't fine, dammit!"

The fifth seat could see the concern shining in Ikkaku's eyes and couldn't help but notice the worried set of his lover's jaw. The raven haired shinigami lets out a defeated sigh and decides that he simply can't keep the truth from his lover any longer. He gently pulls his wrist free of Ikkaku's grasp and looks down at the floor, "We need to talk, Ikkaku."

Ikkaku shakes his head and crosses his arms over his chest, "We ain't talkin' about nothin' until you agree to go to the fourth and find out what's the matter with ya."

Yumichika can feel the tears prickling in the corner of his eyes, but he continues to stare at the bathroom floor, "I don't need to go to the fourth. I…I know what's wrong with me and being tired and nauseous are common."

The bald shinigami gives the other man a very puzzled expression that the fifth seat catches as he finally looks up from the floor, "What do ya mean? Yer not makin' any sense, Yumi."

Yumichika swallows thickly and he clenches his hands into fists to try and stop them from shaking, "I think you should sit down and we should talk."

A terrified look briefly passes across the third seat's face as he backs into the bedroom, "Are ya sick? Is it serious? Are ya gonna…die? Yumi, what the fucks goin' on?"

The petite shinigami blinks a few times to prevent his tears from falling as he shakes his head, "No, nothing like that, but please just sit. You're only making it worse."

Without even looking where he's going, Ikkaku backs into a cushioned chair inside their bedroom, "Just spit it out, Yumichika, yer killing me right now."

Yumichika licks his lips out of nervousness before letting out a loud sigh, "I am pretty much positive that I'm…" He looks away from his lover for a split second, but forces himself to look Ikkaku in the eyes. The third seat deserved to be looked in the eye, "I'm…pregnant."

The third seat remains sitting with a blank expression on his face, but he never looks away from his lover's wet, violet eyes. Ikkaku keeps silent for such a long time that Yumichika was beginning to think he hadn't understood until the bald man finally speaks, "Come again? What?"

Yumichika bites his lower lip to keep from sobbing and attempts to steady his voice as he repeats himself, "I'm pregnant." This time Ikkaku stays silent for so long that the fifth seat does question him, "Say something, Ikkaku. Yell at me! Tell me I'm stupid! Just do something instead of sitting there!"

"The fuck am I supposed to say?" Ikkaku stands up but doesn't advance toward the now crying fifth seat, "Yer standing there telling me yer pregnant, but yet I ain't signed no goddamn paperwork and I ain't talked to no damn body about getting approval fer this shit! So you tell me what the fuck I'm supposed to say because technically it's fuckin' impossible fer ya to be pregnant!" The bald man balls his hands into fists at his side and paces slightly in front the chair he had previously been sitting in, "I need fer ya to explain yerself and ya had better do it quick."

Yumichika swallows again trying to wet his dry throat, but it doesn't do any good and more tears spill from his eyes as he looks at his lover's furious face, "I…I stole the lozenge from Kuchiki Manor. They had an extra one and I…I took it about six months ago. I had every intention of returning it, but…but I just couldn't give up on the idea of you and I having a child together." He lets out a frustrated sigh and wipes at his eyes and nose with the towel he was still clutching from when he'd thrown up earlier, "I kept it in my pocket and I kept telling myself that I would make you talk to me about everything, but every time I tried you…you shut me down. So one night I was feeling really upset about the whole thing and I…I ate the lozenge."

The fifth seat lets out a loud sob and sniffles as he wipes his face with the towel again. He didn't dare look at Ikkaku's face because he didn't want to lose his nerve now that he'd started his tale of deceit, "I knew it was a mistake the second it dissolved all the way, but what could I do at that point? I had done something terrible and there was no turning back. So, I tried to avoid you, but that only caused us to fight and on the last day of the lozenge's potency you came and convinced me to come back home." He finally looks at his lover and instantly regrets it as the look of disgust coming from Ikkaku washes over him, "I'm sorry I lied to you! I'm sorry that I didn't just come clean with you! I'm sorry that things happened this way! Please, Ikkaku, don't hate me!"

The third seat begins pacing back and forth in front the chair and refuses to look at his crying lover as he shakes his head in disbelief, "Yer gonna stand there and tell me yer sorry after everything ya just told me?" He finally looks at Yumichika with a hurt expression on his face, "Not only did ya lie to me, but ya stole from our friend and ya went against procedure. Now, ya know I ain't no stickler fer rules, but this…this shit is serious." Ikkaku continues pacing as he rubs the back of his bald head with his palm, "This ain't something we can just gloss over and say oops and then act like it never happened." He stops his pacing and points at the fifth seats abdomen, "If ya are pregnant then that's a fucking kid in there…my fucking kid! But, I didn't have no say in the matter! I didn't even know I was making the little brat! That shit ain't right, Yumi!" He finally looks at the floor to avoid watching Yumichika cry any longer, "How long have ya been lying to me? How far along are ya anyway, huh?"

Yumichika finds his tears drying up with each angry word from Ikkaku, "Don't you stand there and act all innocent, Ikkaku. I have tried desperately to talk to you about us starting a family for over a year! Every time I bring it up you yell and tell me I'm stupid! Then you go off and get plastered and avoid me for days!" He throws the towel on the floor and makes his way closer to his angry lover, "What choice did you give me? I'm not trying to make light of what I've done because I regret every day lying to you and I know that if I am pregnant then I'm in big trouble when the Head Captain finds out, but I do not for once regret this baby!" Fresh tears spill from his eyes, but he finds that these tears are being shed out of anger, "You can hate me if you want to and you can even walk away from it all if you want to, but don't you ever blame this one!" He points to his abdomen as he speaks, "It's not this one's fault and this one belongs to you too! We made it together and that…that should make you happy, but for some reason starting a family with me in the last thing you ever wanted to do." He takes in a shaky breath before continuing, "I'm sorry I lied to you and I don't blame you for being angry with me, but don't you dare act like you had nothing to do with my decision."

When the third seat doesn't respond, Yumichika speaks again, "Aren't you going to say anything?"

Ikkaku shakes his head, "No, I ain't because I promised myself I wouldn't ever call you some of the things I wanna call ya right now." He begins walking out of the bedroom with Yumichika at his heels, "I can't talk to ya right now. I…I can't even look at ya right now."

He begins slipping his shoes on making Yumichika's anger dissolve and his fear return, "Where are you going?"

"Out." Ikkaku opens the door, "I need some time away from ya and I don't know when I'll be back. It may be tomorrow…hell, it may be months."

Yumichika forces down his tears and nausea with his next words, "But, we…we need to talk about this."

The bald shinigami finally looks at his lover again, "We're gonna talk, but it ain't gonna be today."

Ikkaku makes his way out the door with Yumichika still following him, "Ikkaku, wait!" The third seat stops walking, but doesn't turn around. Yumichika takes this as silent permission to say whatever it was, "You don't have to and I certainly wouldn't blame you if you decided not to, but…but, I made an appointment at the fourth for next week…Tuesday. You wanted to know…I'll be eight weeks then. If you want to come and check on the baby you can." Silent tears flow from his eyes, "You may not want me anymore, but I'm not going to deny you the chance to know your child."

Ikkaku remains facing away from Yumichika as he speaks his next words, "I'll think about it." He begins walking again and was very thankful that Yumichika missed the tears staining his own cheeks.

TBC…

Thanks again for reading!